Mutilations of Waterfowl
Waterfowl are adapted to the farm environment, instead of vice versa
Farmed waterfowl are subjected to several painful interventions. These interventions are mostly carried out without anaesthesia and pain relief. Why? For more economic efficiency and thus cheaper meat and textiles.
Live Feather Plucking
Beak/Brill Trimming
Amputating
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Beak/bill trimming
- Purpose: To reduce injuries on animals when fighting and prevent them from pecking each other.
- Procedure: Various methods are used to trim the beaks/bills of waterfowl. Cold cutting with scissors, tip-searing the beak/bill against a cautery blade or cutting the beak/bill with a hot blade.1
- Information: Naturally the beak of the birds is sharp to help them pick food and manipulate objects. When the beak is trimmed such behaviours are harder to perform. It depends on the procedure used to what extent the beak is trimmed – usually the upper jaw is shortened. Beak trimming is very painful for the animal as the beak is the most sensitive body part of a bird and is needed for many kinds of manipulation. It can be compared to human fingertips and the amputation means loss of ability to cope with the environment, conspecifics and e.g. comfort behaviour.
Additionally, neuromas can occur in the residual beak, causing pain or nerve hyper-sensation (perceived as electric shock after contact with the respective area). Every contact, that a bird has with the beak, e.g. feeding, is accompanied by a negative stimulus.2
The bird also loses its integrity and the ability for good welfare states by being adapted to the housing system and not vice versa.
If housing conditions would be adapted to the needs of the animals (e.g. by offering outdoor grassland, species-specific structures, more space and limited group sizes), there would be no need for beak trimming. - FOUR PAWS demands: A general ban on beak trimming. Beak trimming is a mutilation which is deemed necessary to mitigate the adverse effects of inappropriate keeping conditions instead of adapting the keeping conditions to the animals. No beak trimming of any kind should be allowed and performed.
Amputating toes and wing joints (‘pinioning’)
- Purpose: To prevent animals from injuring themselves or each other when fighting and adapting them to the housing system instead of vice versa.
- Procedures: There are many different amputations performed on the animals3:
- De-toeing: removing the toes
- Toe/claw trimming: trimming of the sharp ends of the toes
- Pinioning: cutting off the distal wing joint or the 'thumbs' of waterfowl that permanently prevents them from flying
- FOUR PAWS demands: A general ban on mutilations such as toe clipping or pinioning. Housing conditions should be adapted to the animal, providing them with more space and prevent injuries.
Live feather plucking/harvesting
- Purpose: To obtain down from the birds for the fashion industry.
- Procedure: For feather plucking the bird is restrained and the feathers are ripped off the animals' bodies. In feather harvesting/gathering the loose feathers are collected from the still restrained bird. Given the fact that the techniques are quite similar, errors while harvesting/gathering can easily occur, resulting in the bird having their feathers ripped out. Hence, in both techniques the animals are often injured, with open wounds, skin lesions or broken wings from rough handling. Wounds are then stitched without using any anaesthesia or analgesics afterwards.4
- FOUR PAWS demands: A general ban on live feather plucking and harvesting. FOUR PAWS calls on brands to stop using down from supply chains, unless they have the capability to credibly guarantee that the geese and ducks were not live-plucked or force-fed.
FOUR PAWS demands regarding mutilations of waterfowl
- A general ban on beak trimming. Beak trimming is a mutilation which is deemed necessary to mitigate the adverse effects of inappropriate keeping conditions instead of adapting the keeping conditions to the animals. No beak trimming of any kind should be allowed and performed.
- A general ban on mutilations such as toe clipping or pinioning. Housing conditions should be adapted to the animal, providing them with more space and prevent injuries.
- A general ban on live feather plucking, harvesting and calls on brands to stop using down from supply chains, unless they have the capability to credibly guarantee that the geese and ducks were not live-plucked or force-fed.
Source
1. EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Animal Welfare (AHAW Panel), Nielsen SS, Alvarez J, Bicout DJ, Calistri P, Canali E, Drewe JA, Garin-Bastuji B, Gonzales Rojas JL, Schmidt CG, et al. Welfare of ducks, geese and quail on farm. EFSA Journal. 2023;21(5):e07992. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2023.7992
2. Gentle MJ. Pain in Birds. Animal Welfare. 1992;1(4):235–247. doi:10.1017/S0962728600015189
3. van Niekerk TGCM, Jong I. Mutilations in poultry European poultry production systems. Lohmann Information 42 (2007) 1. 2007 Jan 1.
4. EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW). Scientific Opinion on the practice of harvesting (collecting) feathers from live geese for down production. EFSA Journal. 2010;8(11):1886. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1886
2. Gentle MJ. Pain in Birds. Animal Welfare. 1992;1(4):235–247. doi:10.1017/S0962728600015189
3. van Niekerk TGCM, Jong I. Mutilations in poultry European poultry production systems. Lohmann Information 42 (2007) 1. 2007 Jan 1.
4. EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW). Scientific Opinion on the practice of harvesting (collecting) feathers from live geese for down production. EFSA Journal. 2010;8(11):1886. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1886